What do you do, when you cover a song that is so indelibly stamped into the brains of about 3 generations of people, to make your version idiosyncratically yours?
Mess it up completely.
Seriously. If you're going to cover anything from Sesame Street, you know you're going to offend people if you don't do it justice. So when a thrash-punk band gets hold of it, you know it'll only end up one way - completely opposite to the way it is supposed to sound.
We all know and love the original. Everyone loves Cookie Monster. Gen X-ers and their parents heard this song for years and now GenY kids know it. It needs no introduction.
So when Boston hardcore punks released their cover, it was always going to be gloriously stupid. Short, fast and loud is the order of the day. But even though it clocks in at under 2 minutes, their version, in my view, is about 40 seconds too long. The joke gets old quickly. Yeah ok, it's funny the first couple of run throughs, but by the end you get a bit over it.
VERDICT: There's a certain amount of merit in recasting a song in such an outrageous way, and Slapshot do indeed deserve credit for that. It's a fun version. They just labour the point. The original is still unimpeachable. You can't help but smile your way through both versions.
Original:
Slapshot:
No comments:
Post a Comment